Renewing - 25/08/2016

Entrepreneurs know how difficult it is: renewing your company to adjust to changing circumstances in markets, economies or technologies. There are complete management and business courses on the subject of change management – and there are numerous gurus giving seminars in packed conference halls all over the globe, pretending they’ve found the solution for all managers and CEOs looking to change. One thing on change management that I picked up during one of the courses I took over the years, and never forgot, is that 60 percent of people working in a company can handle change, 40 percent can’t. Of that 40 percent, 8 percent will become unbalanced due to the changes affecting and/or expected of them and 2 percent become almost mentally ill just thinking about having to change their work patterns, their attitude etc. It’s therefore not an easy message to put forward: we have to change and renew ourselves for the sake of the company’s very existence. But there’s no other way: companies, also in our field, will have to change and renew themselves – the sooner, the better. Market circumstances are changing fast – while markets seem to change constantly without any difficulty - and therefore adjusting needs to be quicker, meaner and leaner than before.

In this issue of Hydro International we are highlighting a game-changer: renewables, and more specifically, we will of course focus on surveying for offshore renewables. Offshore wind parks account for the majority of offshore renewables, but tidal and wave energy also play an ever increasing part. You can read an article by Ian Lewis describing how current profiling improves tidal energy’s competitiveness. In addition, we are carrying an article by Carly Nichols, Bram Pek et al. on a floating tidal energy platform prototype.

The transition from fossil to renewable energy is going fast and is changing the landscape, not just for energy suppliers, citizens and companies: other choices and consequences, other prices, logistics and other business models. (By the way, in countries where there has been a clear choice for wind energy the landscape of these countries is changing dramatically – and I am fully aware that for many this is worth more than just a side note). For entrepreneurs in the supply chain, including many hydrographic surveying companies, this whole transformation requires a great ability to adjust, to design new strategies and to adopt new business models. I am aware that change is often good, but also challenging. We hope that our articles give you some guidance on the course of the world around us and therefore also the course of hydrography. In a climate that requires hard choices it is inevitable that you have to renew to survive.